Sunday 151 Ride - 2021

[lpcoating]

I've had the 151 out for some short rides around town but the official 151 2021 tour begins this Thursday. My friend Blake is bringing his A2 up again from VA and we are doing a 3 day Western PA tour. Leading the charge will be a '78 CJ5 and we might have an M170 join us for a day. I'll post pictures of what we see. This is from Memorial Day after participating in a local parade.

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Guy

[mrdibbles]

Fantastic! Well done Guy.

[raymond]

Fantastic! Well done Guy.

Well look who showed up

[csmith]

Is that Blake from my way? If so tell him hello, sounds like fun!

[raymond]

That is the infamous Matt, aka, mrdibbles

[rickf]

Clell is talking about Blake from Virginia, and yes, it is.

But we are happy to also see Mr. Dibbles back, now cruising in his Benz with martini in hand.

[lpcoating]

549 miles in 3 days. Here are some pictures:

Getting ready to roll out. This was Thursday morning.

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First official stop was at Austin Dam. Blake's first time seeing. We've been here several times.

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[lpcoating]

This is one of the roads to the Austin Dam. GPS brings people in this way! Fine for 151's and Jeeps. Not sure about the family station wagon.

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Creekside Inn at Sizerville, PA. People that ran the place live outback. Type of place that they invite you to site down on the porch to talk. No big city here!

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[lpcoating]

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[lpcoating]

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301 feet to the top!

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[lpcoating]

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[lpcoating]

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I have a friend that lives in Warren, PA. This is his M170. He joined us for a ride to Hearts Content old-growth forest.

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The Caboose Motel in Titusville, PA.

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[lpcoating]

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Blake rolled out for home Sunday morning.

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[lpcoating]

Now, for the rest of the story! As I said, 549 miles in 3 days. However, they were not "problem free" miles. About two hours into the trip, the sound rhythm of my A2 started to change. About the same time, I noticed a little skip in the engine. We'll get to that later. The rear differential started to speak it's mind. We pulled over and sure enough it was extremely hot and I could smell gear oil along with a little bit of smoke from under the truck. This diff is from the '89 contract and NOS, installed about 1.5 years ago. I change oil in the rear diff twice per driving season and when changed before this trip looked very good, nothing alarming on the plug magnet. We were about 10 mins from a state park so we limped along until we got there. At the park we found a pavilion with a breeze way that had an opening large enough to back a 151 into. It was close to lunch time so we set up for a picnic and discussed the situation. The weather on the first day was a little rainy / grass wet sort of day. We also kept an eye on the park ranger as we didn't think he'd appreciate us using the pavilion as a garage. Luckily, there were no other people at the park. After eating, I pulled both rear half shafts and we discussed swapping the diffs at the park. About that time the ranger came over and asked if we were picnicking. We said yes (we actually were) and he left. At that point we decided to drive another 15 min to the Austin Dam where we could change the diffs. I put the truck in 4wd and off we went, being pulled by the front tires. With the rear not being under load, it sounded a little better but certainly had to be corrected. After arriving to our next destination, we found some tarps behind the pavilion and started the diff swap. As soon as we pulled the diffs, the weather looked like it was going to rain. We made the decision to push the truck under the pavilion and continue our task. About 10 min after doing so, who shows up at the park? The president of the Austin Dam association. He asked what we were doing (legitimate question). We explained the situation and he asked that we not get any grease or oil on the concrete. We assured him we would clean up. He stayed the whole time, talked about the dam project and was impressed by our resourcefulness in fixing the truck. Before we left I gave him a $50 donation to the dam. He was thrilled. Did the swap and left the front half shafts out of the truck. An issue we had when moving the front diff to the rear was the mounting holes for the rear drive shaft. They were packed with dirt and rust and the bolts did not want to go in. Being on the road and not having anything to chase the threads, we used Marvel Mystery oil and cleaned out as best as we could. The bolts went in farther, but not far enough to snug down drive shaft. At that point, I grabbed lock washers from the universal clamps from the half shafts that we didn't put back in stacked 3 lock washers per drive shaft bolt with the thought that it just needs to hold the universal joint into the flange snuggly. Okay, back on the road. This was about a 2 hour delay. No big deal, we fixed the issue. Off we went. This fix got us to the motel in Sizerville. The next day the truck was running good and then started skipping again. We pulled the fuel filter. I put a new one on about mid last year. It appeared to be partially plugged. New filter installed, back on the road. Truck ran better for a little bit but started skipping again. Okay, pull over along the road and now question fuel pump. This one was on the truck when I bought it. Remember the NOS pump I sent to Now and Then? We put it on the truck. The next 10 mins was a long up hill back road. Truck pulled the hill as it should and didn't miss a beat. Until we got to the other side. I acted up a little bit, I messed with the choke and it started to run good again. Next road was about 10 min at 50 mph. Truck ran good. We arrived in a small town and stopped at a Napa. I put a bottle of Sea Foam in the tank. When I went to start the truck, it back fired and as I pulled out it back fired again. This has never happened before and now I'm thinking it's electrical. We drive about 15 more min and arrive at the Kinzua State Park. We go check out the park. After spending some time there we pull the distributor cap. Hmmm. That doesn't look good! I checked the points gap last July and at that time everything looked good. The truck ran great all of last year and I didn't bother to pull cap before trip. Anyway, I had a spare distributor with me and we swapped the points and condenser. This sort of thing is not my area of expertise and I was glad that Blake was there. While doing the swap, he noticed that someone had spliced the wire from the capacitor to the coil. We put it back together and it ran as it should. This was on day 2. Great, back on the road, enjoying the trip. We put many more miles on the last fix. Day 3, about 8 pm on the home trip we were pulling a long uphill road and were about 2 hours from home. We had wanted to be home mid day and not drive at night but with our delays, this wasn't going to happen. All of the sudden the truck acted like I turned off the power switch. Roll to a stop we did. Luckily, there was a pull off about 50 yards behind me and I coasted the truck to a safe location. We also lucked out that we had phone service and called the lead jeep to return. Blake checked for spark and there was nothing. Using a spare head light, Blake was able to find where we didn't have power and it was just past the capacitor. Pulled out the spare distributer and swapped capacitors. Last problem of the trip was solved! Now, an interesting find while changing the capacitor - the O-ring that seals the capacitor? Was missing... In looking back I think my problem came from moisture getting into the distributor from this area while at Rausch creek park last October with the guys from the Steel Soldiers site. There was a mud hole that I had to go through (didn't have a way around) and I had water coming up through the hood slots. This would explain the condition of the inside of the distributor.



So the good news is this: We had a great time, I had all the parts we needed, we had the tools with us and the knowledge to fix the truck. And I now have more knowledge. Even with the delays we were still able to see everything we wanted. This trip will be remembered!
Day 1:

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[Horst]

great trip, awesome story and even a happy end